NEWS END OF MAY 2012

Dear Friends,

Sometimes Christians are accused of not having sufficient contact with unbelievers. That has not been my problem of late – as in my reading and in internet discussions I have been heavily engaged in discussion with those who are strongly pushing a secularist agenda. Pray the Lord give me wisdom on how to respond to these dear folk.

Four long-time pastor colleagues and I sat together in the church building just 20 minutes after the advertised time. They’d started this Bible class on their own initiative. It was, on their own testimony, a serious undertaking – on the basis that it was receiving support from some White people. The material in a handout was read in English, translated and then expounded on in Dholuo by the member of our group who had been appointed ‘teacher’. It was nice to have been invited to join a class without being responsible for it. Perhaps this is the way forward for me in theological education; piggy backing on someone else’s programme. (If I am part of the running of the programme because I am a White man there is an enormous expectation that I should fund it. Also it is very difficult to find local funding for a project which has a white man closely involved.)

Pray for Ben and Sally Amos, Muheza hospital, Tanzania . These are long time friends of mine. Sally has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

A sad part of contemporary life in Africa : I asked some children recently, what would happen if they couldn’t understand their teacher in school very well, and so they asked him (her) to explain a point using their mother tongue. “We’d be caned” said the children.

23rd May 2012 – army ants chased small ants and large ants from their homes, into my kitchen (at Maseno). Small ants hate large ants, it seems, and large ants hate small ants, and they all hate army ants even more. Full blown battles raged on my kitchen wall!

Global University ( USA ), who we work with at KIST, has promoted me to the grade of ‘Professor’! See the document.

Give thanks that an article of mine on Bible translation has been accepted for publication in an SIL (Wycliffe) journal.

Yours,

Jim